There is actually a Council on Veterans Employment meeting on May 4.

I am going to make sure that the people of King Cove are heard.

I am not going to sit back and just hope that we do not have any more emergencies during bad weather because hope is not a policy.

I think it would be very deleterious to the long-term future of our country because so much of the innovations that we're talking about have depended on these, the long-term stable investments in research and development.

At the end of the day we have to be a great manufacturer or we're going to have tremendous vulnerabilities in national security.

I just want to go on record in support of those three projects, and thank you for including them and recognizing their importance.

I just heard on the way over that the Navy has made a decision to name the DDG-120 the Senator Carl Levin, which I compliment.

Yet when we are going to need it, we are going to really need it, and if it is not there, we are going to suffer the consequences.

I am convening this hearing today to assess our progress in combating Alzheimer's disease since the enactment of the National Alzheimer's Project Act which I co-authored with my friend and former colleague, Senator Evan Bayh.

If nothing is done to change the trajectory of this disease, costs are projected to increase over a trillion by 2050.

These numbers are not sustainable for our government, and they are certainly not sustainable for the families.

I want to thank Chairman Collins for her leadership on this Committee and specifically her leadership on behalf of individuals and families that are suffering with Alzheimer's.

We are not fully meeting our fundamental responsibility in the preamble of the Constitution to provide for the common defense.

The idea is that the AAV will be used to get the marines ashore.

It seems to me that we and the Congress have to really be talking about this.

If we do not likewise see that type of increase to our shipbuilding budget, then we will not be able to execute the long-range plan.

Of course a multiyear is always going to be better for the taxpayer than one at a time.

The reality is defense spending as a percentage of GDP is the lowest today that it has been in 70 years.